Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-01-01

Thu weird enough without Wiles'
eye to add TO its wild picturesqueness. The
mountain lowered above-a heavy Rem
brandtish mass of black shadow-sharply cut
here and there against a sky so ineonceivsbly
remote that the world-sick soul must have
despaired Of ever reaching SO far or Of climb
ing its steel-blue walls. The stars were large,
keen and brilliant, but cold and steadfast
They did not dance nor twinkle in their ada
mantine setting. Tho furnace fire painted
the faces Of the men an Indian red, glanced
on brightly colored blanket and serape, but
was eventually caught and absorbed in tho
waiting shadows of the black mountain,
scarcely twenty feet from the furnace door.
The low, half-sung, half-whispered foreign
speech 4 the group, the roaring of the fur
mace and the quick, sharp yelp Of the coyote
on the plain below were the only sounds that
broke the awful silence Of the hills.
It was almost dawn when it was announced
that the ore had fused. And it was high
time, for the pot was slowly sinking into tho
fast crumbling oven. Concho uttered jubi-
LIANT "God and Liberty" but Don Jose Wiles
bade him be silent and bring stakes to sup
port the pot. Then Don Jose bent over the
seething mass It was for moment only.
But in that moment this accomplished met
tallurgist, Mr.. Joseph Wiles, had quietly
dropped silver half dollar into the potl
Then he charged them to keep up the firss
and went to sleep-all but one eye.
Dawn came with dull beacon fires on tho
near hill tops, and, far in the east, roses over
the Eierran snow Birds twittering in the
alder hinges mile below, and the creaking
Of wagon wheels-the wagon itself mere
cloud of dust in the distant road-were heard
distinctly. Then the melting pot was SOL
emnly broken by Don jose, and the glowing
incandescent mass turned into the road to
cool
And then the metallurgist clipped q small
fragment from the mass and pounded it, and
Clipped another smaller piece and pounded
that, and then subjected it to acid, and then
treated it to salt bath which became at
once milky-and at last produced a white
something-mirabile dictul-two cents worth
Of silverl
Concho shouted with joy; the rest gazed at
each other doubtingly and distrustfully COM
panlOIS III poNciGy3 VAcy OOSuA " uVSIbo
and suspect each other in prosperity. Wiles'
left eye glanced ironically from the one to
the other.
"Here is the 800, Don Jose," said Pedro,
handing the gold to Wiles with decidedly
brusque intimation that the services and
presence of a stranger were no longer re-
quired.
%r<,1 k1.a until a<,iOr
smile and wink that sent Pedro's heart into
his boots and was turning away when a cry
from Manuel stopped him:
"The pot-the pot-it has ivakedl looki be-
i. hold! seel"
He had been cleaning away the crumbled
fragments of the furnace to get ready for
breakfast, and had disclosed a shining pool Of
quicksilver
Wiles started, cast rapid glance around
the group, saw in a flash that the metal was
unknown to them, and then said, quietly:
ut is not silver"
"Pardon, senior, it is, and still molten"
Wiles stopped and ran his fingers through
the shining metal.
9Mother of God-what is it, thena-magici"
"No, only base metal" But here, Concho,
emboldened by Wiles' experiment, attempted
to seize handful of the glistening mass that
instantly broke through his fingers in a thou
sand tiny spherules, and even sent few
globules up his shirt sleeves until he danced
around in mingled fear and childish pleasure.
"And it is not worth the takingY" queried
Pedro of Wiles
Wiles' right eye and bland face were
turned toward the speaker, but his malevo-
lent left was glancing at the dull, red-brown
rock ON the hillside.
"No!" and turning abruptly away he pro-
ceeded to saddle his mule.
Manuel Miguel and Pedro, left to them
selves, began talking earnestly together,
while Concho, now mindful Of his crippled
mule, made his way back to the trail where
he had left her. But she was no longer there.
Constant to her master through beatings and
bullyings, she could not stand incivility and
inattention. There are certain qualities Of
the sex that belong to all animated nature
Inconsolable, footsore and remorseful, Con-
cho returned to the camp and furnace, three
miles across the rocky ridge. But what was
his astonishment on arriving to find the place
OeSeTUou VI ulaIA, uuic duu CttIup equlpaRe.
Concho called aloud Only the echoing rocks
grimly answered him. Was it a trick2 Con-
cho tried to laugh. Ah-yes-a good one-a
joke-no-no-they had deserted him And
then poor Concho bowed his head to the
ground. and falling on his face, cried as if his
honest heart would break.
The tempest passed in a moment; it was not
Concho's nature to suffer long nor to brood
over an injury As he raised his head again
his eye caught the simmer of the quick
silver-that pool of merry antic metal that
had SO delighted him an hour before In
few moments Concho was again disporting
with it; chasing it here and there, rolling it
in his palms and laughing with boylike glee
at its elusive freaks and fancies. "Ah,
prightly one-skipjack-ther thou goest-
come here. This way-now have thee, lit
tie one-come, muchacha-come and kiss
me-" until he had quite forgotten the defec-
ton of his companions. And even when he
shouldered his sorry pack, he was fain to
carry his playmate away with him in his
empty leathern flask.
And yet fancy the sun looked kindly on
him as he strobe cheerily down the black